Served Digizine™- Farm to School

Food & Health Inspiration

What’s growing in Lee County, FL Planting Healthy Habits

“Our Goal is to expose as many students as we can to produce grown right in their own county.” Partnering with school gardens also allows us to utilize the cafeteria as a place of nutrition education in our effort to cultivate smarter lunchrooms. It’s awesome when students ask, “Hey, can I have some starters? I want to go home and start my own garden.” “

In addition to Island Coast High School, Trafalgar Middle School has another flourishing garden within the school district of Lee County featuring a large 28,000 square foot garden. Students plant, maintain and harvest the garden and all produce is brought to the cafeteria to be featured on the serving lines. What is not used in the cafeteria is then donated to a local soup kitchen. The Trafalgar Garden uses hydroponics to grow a variety of produce including lettuce, kale, peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, brussel sprouts, and more.

NxtGen Network Breanna Gustafson

October is Farm to School Month! It’s the time where school nutrition professionals across the country celebrate fresh ingredients, locally sourced produce and school gardens. At Island Coast High School in Cape Coral Florida, they’re celebrating all of the above! Lee County makes an effort to feature something fresh from Florida on the trays of students each day. Over the last six months, I have had the pleasure of telling Lee County’s school garden story and have enjoyed watching the gardens flourish. School garden programs not only provide fresh produce for use in the cafeterias but they also provide nutrition education for students. If they grow it, they’re more likely to eat it. “

Like school districts across the country, Lee County is facing the distribution issues causing interruptions in school foodservice. This year, school gardens will be able to provide fresh from Florida produce to not only their cafeteria, but a handful of surrounding schools as well. “We’re excited to partner with Island Coast to provide lettuce to surrounding schools grown for students by students. This initiative highlights locally grown food during a critical time of widespread supply chain disruption, ” said Amy Carroll, Special Projects Coordinator for Lee County’s Food & Nutrition Services Program. “The Momentum behind this collaboration is building as we hope to use this blueprint to train other school garden leaders in growing hydroponic lettuce in an effort to extend these types of partnerships throughout the county,” said Carroll.

Al Piotter Agriscience Teacher at Trafalgar Middle School

The Farm to School month celebrations don’t stop in the school gardens though. The school district of Lee County will be hosting Florida Crunch Days the last week of October at several schools.The Crunch Day is designed to encourage students to try new vegetables grown in Florida. Students will learn about the vegetable they are eating and then will all try it at the same time, making a loud crunch sound.

https://vimeo. com/622417042

Check out this video about Trafalgar Middle School that highlights their large 28,000 square foot garden that is maintained with student participation.

You can follow along with the #FarmToSchoolMonth celebrations on the district’s Facebook page!

https://vimeo. com/588897797

Susie Hassett Environmental Education Resource Teacher

NxtGen Network A natural storyteller, Breanna Gustafson is the Director of Marketing for NxtGen Network. Breanna kicked off her career in journalism as an Assignment Editor at WCVB-TV in Boston and worked in public television on Cape Cod. Her undergraduate degree is in communications, film, and media studies. In 2018, Breanna filled the first ever Marketing Supervisor position for Food & Nutrition at Lee County Schools in Florida. Breanna has her Master’s Degree in New Media & Marketing and enjoys telling the brand stories of school districts and manufacturers across the country. Breanna Gustafson

Check out this video about Island Coast High School that highlights locally grown food during a critical time of widespread supply chain disruption.